It was ranked alongside Russia, India and China as an emerging global economic powerhouse but now the pillaging of Brazil’s natural resources, corruption at the highest levels and a crippling drought is threatening that status

Features

On Tuesday, the bishops of England and Wales published a letter to Catholics setting out issues to consider ahead of this year’s general election. It is a far cry from the bold 52-page document produced on the same subject last week by the Church of England

It was ranked alongside Russia, India and China as an emerging global economic powerhouse but now the pillaging of Brazil’s natural resources, corruption at the highest levels and a crippling drought is threatening that status

The 14 Stations of the Cross found on the walls of almost every Catholic church allow us to relive Christ’s final journey wherever we are. The former master of the Dominican Order considers the beauty and significance of this ancient devotion

The publication of Paul VI’s encyclical banning the use of artificial birth control was a pivotal moment in this journal’s history. The stand taken against it by the then editor has reverberated ever since

African women farmers will benefit from the Lenten Appeal launched by Scotland’s Catholic aid agency, Sciaf. The Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh has just returned from Malawi where he has seen the material and spiritual benefits of the campaign at first hand

Previous issues

The recent consistory in Rome, which saw Pope Francis create 15 new cardinal-electors from every corner of the world, marked another significant moment in his reform of the Church. But it also showed that the change he has in mind goes beyond a shake-up of the Curia

As Catholics celebrate the appointment of Myanmar’s first cardinal, religious violence in the country formerly known as Burma is being fanned for political gain by a desperate government ahead of a general election later this year

This week, the Duchess of Cambridge pledged support for the UK’s first Children’s Mental Health Week. Catholic schools are often on the front line of this rising tide of depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide

Anthropologists routinely claim that their work has fatally discredited Christianity, along with all other religious belief. Yet many in the field have been Catholics. An academic suggests a solution to this apparent contradiction

The theme of this year’s reflections for Lent by Joan Chittister is “Journey into Light”. She begins by reminding us that Lent is not a place of darkness and abandonment, but a step on the way towards light

There is, to adapt Jerry Lee Lewis, a whole lot of “shaming” going on. In recent months I have spotted “parent-shaming”, “single-shaming”, fat-shaming”, “skinny-shaming” and even “dog-shaming”. And that is to say nothing of the phrase with which it all began: “slut-shaming”.

In a week that saw hopes rise for an end to the conflict in Ukraine following intense Franco-German shuttle diplomacy, a former British ambassador to Kiev argues that the West must stay united in support of Russia’s embattled neighbour

There has traditionally been strong support among Catholics for Labour but the party is in danger of neglecting this important constituency. Remarks critical of nuns as teachers by Labour’s education spokesman could be a sign of the times

Sanctions for bishops who fail to act against abusive priests were the most important recommendation urged last week by the Pope’s commission for child protection. Abuse survivors on the commission want fast action

Last week the Catholic moral theologian Jack Mahoney backed the decision of MPs to permit a procedure that will allow babies to be created using DNA from three people in order to screen out genetic diseases. The Church, and many others, oppose the move

Children who are abused are often too frightened to complain about what has happened. Others who do speak out are not believed. This was not the experience of a senior Religious who is a survivor of childhood abuse. Here he relates his experience and warns against the demonisation of perpetrators.

The Church of England’s decision to admit women bishops appears an insoluble block on the road to church unity. But in the 175 years since this paper first appeared, the door to union has closed several times, only to open again

The depravity of Islamic State has prompted some to recall Pope Benedict’s controversial Regensburg lecture as a prophetic wake-up call. Its real message was very different, and is of even greater relevance today

Dioceses across the country are scrambling to provide enough school places to cope with the huge demand. Jeremy Sutcliffe looks at why birth rates have increased and the different ways in which the extra numbers are being accommodated

As the number of monastic head teachers dwindles and questions continue to be raised over the need for independent schools, James Whitehead, the first lay head at Downside, explains why Benedictine schools still flourish in today’s world

Trainee teachers at an American Catholic university are given the chance to hone their skills in poorer areas of the United States, or further afield, which can take them well outside their comfort zones, as three of them recount

Drawing a cork is a commitment and a once-opened bottle provokes a dilemma, even for the moderate wine bibbers who read (and write) this column. What if you want to drink no more than a glass and are unlikely to be drinking the next day? A half-full bottle, especially if half-decent, is not going to be up to it two days later.

Greek Catholics, along with other Christian minorities in their beleaguered country, are hoping to fare better under the new Government. In particular, they welcome steps to trim the sails of the established Orthodox Church

In the nineteenth century, the rapid growth of religious sisters in England and Wales was chronicled in this publication, as was the decline in the latter part of the twentieth century and beyond. But despite the rise and fall, one academic finds reasons to be hopeful about their future

Just 15 years after emerging from the grip of military dictators, the prospect of being led by a former general appears increasingly attractive to the voters of Africa’s most populous nation as they reel from reports of yet more atrocities committed by Islamic separatists

The BBC has cut the post of commissioning editor for religious television programmes in order to save money. Critics of the move fear it will accelerate the decline in the quality and quantity of faith-related coverage

Church bells rang out in San Salvador this week to celebrate the formal declaration by Pope Francis that Archbishop Oscar Romero died as a martyr. The move paves the way for his beatification this year and his declaration as a saint soon after

The television version of Hilary Mantel’s novel Wolf Hall is the latest account to challenge St Thomas More’s reputation as a courageous defender of the rights of conscience. Was he, in truth, a liberal icon, a religious fanatic or something in between?

Celebrating the birth of the author of The Seven Storey Mountain, a Canadian biographer and scholar examines the lasting significance of a writer steeped in the spiritual and intellectual richness of 1960s Catholicism

In the 175 years since this paper first appeared, the Church in England and Wales has been continuously refreshed and renewed by the arrival of Catholics from overseas – from Ireland, the Commonwealth, Europe and the wider world

Mary Ellen Russell’s job changed last week. The executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference (MCC) still works at the same office in Annapolis, the state capital. She has the same job title and her day-to-day routine will be little different.

What exactly is “satire”? And is it supposed to be funny? In origin, it certainly was not.
The word “satire” is first recorded in Britain in Alexander Barclay’s The Shyp of Folys of the World, a 1509 translation of Sebastian Brant’s Das Narrenschyff into English verse. The German work, published in 1494, was a fierce attack, in 112 verse chapters, on the evils of the day, especially in the Church.

After two terms as the first full-time president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy retired from front-line politics late last year. In a rare interview, he makes a case for a united Europe for security, peace and prosperity

Elaborate preparations to mark the seventieth anniversary on Tuesday of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau highlight how Poland has begun to acknowledge its own anti-Semitic past and to recognise that it has a Jewish question, too

As mainstream Muslim leaders seek to distance Islam from the ‘deviancy’ of the jihadist attacks in Paris, a theologian argues that in an increasingly secular world all religions need to harness reason to belief

Of all the contributions made by Catholics to the cultural life of Britain and Ireland in the 175 years since this paper first appeared, a historian suggests that the work of architects such as Pugin and Bentley is among the most striking

As the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity draws to a close, the Archbishop of Birmingham suggests that the provisions which allow Christians not in communion with the Catholic Church to receive the sacraments deserve to be used more effectively

A pilgrimage is often seen as a metaphor for life’s journey, none more so than the trek along the Way of St James to Santiago de Compostela. Arrival at the shrine cheers the heart and gives a glimpse of Heaven

Every year, the University of Arizona’s College of Sciences puts on a public lecture series; this year’s theme is “Life in the Universe”. Given my ability to deliver good entertainment (my ancestors were in vaudeville), I have been asked to present the opening lecture, “What is life?”

Amid a worldwide outpouring of support, millions of defiant French citizens took to the streets last Sunday to protest at the murders by Islamic militants in Paris. It was an assertion of common values held by people of all races and creeds

The cover of the latest issue of Charlie Hebdo features a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. It has been widely reproduced but such grand gestures put at risk the task of building alliances to achieve real change for the victims of terror

Michel Houellebecq’s latest novel, about a man who converts to Islam, was published on the very day of the Charlie Hebdo murders. Some believe the novel holds an uncomfortable lesson for contemporary Catholics

In the 175 years since this paper was first published, Catholic writers have helped shape the literary canon. They include Cardinal Newman, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene and a busy Birmingham parish priest

The 20 new cardinals named by Pope Francis last Sunday vividly illustrate his vision for the future. Gone is the image of a Eurocentric Church with its expectations of automatic preferment. A new and younger world is about to be heard

In an overwhelmingly Catholic country where more than half the population consider themselves to be living in poverty, the presence of Pope Francis offers great hope. But can the country’s conservative hierarchy change?

Exactly 100 years ago, The Tablet reproduced a pastoral letter by the Belgian primate, Cardinal Mercier, that was a rallying call to Belgians not to be cowed by the German occupiers. The author of a forthcoming biography of Mercier considers whether he deserves to be regarded as a war hero

Last week, Christopher M. Bellitto argued for a middle way between tradition and progress ahead of the next Synod on the Family in October. But this is neither possible nor desirable, says a distinguished Irish theologian

The life of Elvis Presley is a tragic rags-to-riches story. The singer, who would have been 80 this week, delighted millions with his music but his wealth did not bring fulfilment. He remained a spiritual seeker to the end

The assisted dying campaigner Debbie Purdy died in a hospice in Bradford before Christmas. Her life and death, which comes amid escalating pressure on the Government to legalise assisted dying, has raised wider questions about poor access to palliative care and to hospices

Alcohol and religious orders have enjoyed a long and productive association. Think of Carthusians and Chartreuse, Benedictines and Benedictine (as well as the less reputable tonic wine), Trappists and strong, dark beer. We owe the distillation of spirits to inquisitive (and doubtless thirsty) Religious who learned it from Moorish sources.

2015 marks the 175th anniversary of The Tablet, which has stayed the course to become one of the few publications in Britain to be in print continuously since 1840. And, as its current editor shows, it has always been proud of its Catholic identity

The first conclave to elect a pope covered by The Tablet was in 1846, after the death of Gregory XVI. Papabili were mentioned, though Mastai-Ferretti, who was to become Pius IX, was not among them. Alas its record for picking future popes scarcely improved over the following 11 elections

A psychological study of the impact of the Boxing Day tsunami, which swept across the Indian Ocean 10 years ago, suggests that the mental health of survivors may be helped by supporting the work of temples, churches and mosques

Big decisions lie ahead for Britain with a general election and the verdict on the Iraq war. Abroad, the situation in Ukraine and Islamic State continue to threaten global stability. And there are significant anniversaries to mark. Here our expert commentators review the prospects ahead

It is clear that the Pope is a reformer. But he cannot be easily categorised as either a progressive or a conservative. A theologian argues that the best way of understanding him might be to look at the work of the great French theologian Yves Congar, who developed principles that steer between the extremes of tradition and progress as well as between conservation and innovation

A Latin American Pope has been instrumental in making peace in the 50-year conflict between the US and Cuba. The announcement that diplomatic relations will resume in the New Year shows the unrivalled reach of Vatican diplomacy

Let us hope that Christmas has passed without too many cases of food poisoning. Poultry has been getting a bad press of late. Levels of pathogens, microbes that cause infection, appear to be out of control on raw chicken.

In August this year, The Tablet’s editor embarked on a break from the paper to undertake a period of study, but scarcely had her sabbatical started than her plans were overtaken by a shocking diagnosis

Our parks and gardens are full of much-loved flowers from China. We owe their presence to a group of men who devoted their lives, and sometimes sacrificed them, to saving souls but also delighted in discovering a wealth of ornamental plants

Private Bert Hattersley was killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. For his nephew, the letters and primitive diary found in the dugout where Bert spent his last night are a poignant memorial of the brief lives snuffed out by the First World War

There is no stopping coinages: new words and phrases appear with dazzling regularity. So how have you fared this year when it comes to keeping abreast of the changing English language? Our annual quiz will tell you whether you’re wordly wise.

On 16 December, the Pakistani Taliban murdered 141 people – 132 of them schoolchildren, many sitting examinations, others simply attending classes. A former British diplomat explains the tensions in the region that led to one of the most horrific terrorist atrocities of recent years

The world of the Brothers Grimm is a deeply moral one: wrongdoers get their just deserts, promises must be kept and the underdog usually triumphs in the end. That is why their stories are perfect for the Christmas season

At a time when flaws in the governance of the Church have been thrown into sharp relief, even by the Pope himself, a Jesuit and Scripture scholar argues that contemplating the new-born Christ Child offers the best lesson in exercising authority

Angels so prevalent in Christmas cards and decorations are messengers from a God who can often seem remote. As Margaret Atkins reminds us in her final reflection, it was an angelic messenger that brought news which closed the gap between God and his Creation for ever

The city of Brighton and Hove has been called the most godless in Britain, yet it has a demonstrable thirst for spirituality. Its churches are thriving and it is home to an original and beautiful Advent event that draws visitors from far and wide

Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, who died on 22 December 25 years ago, was sometimes contemptuous of those who believe but, as one admirer of the author argues, Beckett consistently explored the idea of faith in his work

It has been a busy month for space probes. The Japanese have launched Hayabusa 2 to go to an asteroid and come back with a sample, larger than the few grains of dust that the first Hayabusa returned. Nasa put its Orion capsule into orbit, its first new spacecraft capable of carrying humans in 30 years; some day it may take astronauts back to the Moon.

Although the latest UN Climate Change Conference in Lima this week has been working towards an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a church-supported campaign that urges industry to reject fossil fuels is unrealistic, according to a senior energy engineer

Bishops and police chiefs around the world gathered in London last weekend for a second meeting of the Santa Marta Group, which marks a new era of cooperation between the Church and the statutory authorities to combat human trafficking

In a region once rich in Christian tradition, many churches fear for their very existence as sectarian strife rages in countries such as Iraq and Syria. But there is one interfaith initiative between Muslims, Copts, Catholics and Anglicans that is bucking the trend for religious hatred

Jeb Bush is emerging as a serious contender for the Republican nomination in the 2016 American presidential election. How will his Catholicism, his rapport with Hispanic voters and his moderate views on immigration and education play with the party’s conservative majority?

On Tuesday, the long-awaited Vatican report on women’s religious life in the US is to be released.
It follows a three-year apostolic visitation led by a senior American sister who here describes how she set about the task and her hopes for its conclusions

There is hope that the cause for beatification of the social activist Dorothy Day will receive a boost with Pope Francis’ visit to the US next year. He has been presented with copies of her writings and her Archdiocese of New York has hired a lay theologian to work on the project

A stint in a London classroom provoked a theologian and journalist to wonder if the way religion is taught in schools leads children to believe that it is irrelevant to their lives, and consequently whether Britain should follow the American approach and leave it out altogether

John the Baptist is seen as having the singular purpose of pointing people, such as his own followers in this week’s reading of the Gospel, towards Jesus. But, in the third of her seasonal reflections, Margaret Atkins looks beyond the evangelists at the man and his mission

Can there ever have been a more cheering unintended consequence than the accidental invention of champagne? The world’s preferred wine of celebration came about through a seventeenth-century Benedictine monk’s failed efforts to improve local wine by – wait for it - removing the bubbles.

On a visit to a centre for refugees and asylum seekers in Bristol,it struck a reporter that she had discovered the kind of project that would be close to Pope Francis’ heart and his wish to see ‘a poor Church for the poor’

Our Christmas foods are admired from afar, but for many it is a case of looking not touching. An Emirati woman once told me how, as a child, she had enjoyed Christmas pudding, but then her mother had stopped ordering them from Harrods when she discovered that the British treats contain alcohol.

It was an historic moment for the Catholic and Orthodox Churches when, against a backdrop of the suffering of Christians in Syria and Iraq, Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew recognised the urgent need to speak with one voice

There are few front-line politicians whose faith is so closely linked to their public profile as the former Labour Cabinet minister Jim Murphy, who is bidding to become the first Catholic to lead one of four main political parties north of the border

The Feast of St Nicholas is an appropriate moment to think about the exchange of gifts. In the second of her seasonal reflections, Margaret Atkins examines different ways in which the act of giving is understood, and how medieval Christianity was seen as a “bleeding heart”

Interventions by Prince Charles in support of persecuted Christians are, according to a senior Anglican adviser who knows his interfaith work well, examples of a commitment to religious freedom born out of his role as heir to the throne

As the first Jesuit Pope, Francis now seems to enjoy cordial relations with his confrères in Rome. But this was not always so. After many interviews with the order in Argentina, a new papal biographer believes he has uncovered the story behind the tensions

This week’s appointment of a new head of the Congregation for Divine Worship will reopen the debate about how the Church makes decisions on the liturgy. Some want to start by revoking the Vatican document that led to the new Missal

People in the West have become used to instant gratification, but the Christian life demands patience and fortitude. In the first of her seasonal reflections, Margaret Atkins looks at this time of waiting and how we can best prepare for it

“THERE’S NO nice way of saying this,” they say – and then they try to find one. Euphemisms are an essential part of losing your job, and none of them helps a bit. There are two ways employment comes to an end: on the one hand, the people go and the jobs disappear with them; on the other, the people go and are promptly replaced by other people.

There are signs that Turkey’s President Erdogan is seeking to appease Western critics with limited gestures to his country’s persecuted Christian minorities. Arriving in Ankara this week, Pope Francis will be able to judge the results for himself

Popular notions of hard-working families forking out for benefit scroungers are well wide of the mark, argues the author of a new book, which shows that virtually everyone at some point in their lives needs government support

The United States is being criticised for its treatment of tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors arriving in the country from Central America, 25 years after it and other governments worldwide adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Mary and her newborn baby are usually pictured as radiant beings far from the reality of a frightened young woman giving birth in difficult circumstances. Yet as the start of the Church’s year approaches, focusing on the humanity of mother and child makes plain God’s desire for us all

A few minutes’ walk from Manger Square in Bethlehem is an underground chapel that for nearly 2,000 years has been the site of a sanctuary, said to contain rock made miraculous through the spilling of the Virgin Mary’s milk on it. Louise Cowley investigates

For many pilgrims, Portugal means Fátima, but 80 miles down the coast is a series of religious festivals uniting the land and the ocean, and indulging the spirit in an inclusive feast of music and colour, as Edna Pottersman found out when she went to Setúbal

More than 1,000 years of Western and Eastern Christian traditions have come together in a small monastery on the Mediterranean island of Crete to create a rich fusion of religious art and artefacts that are testament to a long and turbulent history, as Chris Deliso explains

A few years before he was to change the face of Christian Europe forever, a German Augustinian friar crossed the continent to plead with the Pope for his order’s independence from Rome. Half a millennium later, Nigel Willmott retraced his journey

The search for a retreat house led Anthony Weaver to the easternmost point of the Italian mainland, where he found a history of siege and martyrdom that has poignant lessons for religious tolerance today

THE PHILAE LANDER from the Rosetta spacecraft of the European Space Agency (Esa) has arrived – and bounced – on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, generating a big splash of planetary science media coverage.

This week, Catholic aid agency Cafod announced it will cut around 50 jobs in an effort to save £3m. The move, part of the charity’s long-term strategic review involving its operations around the world, poses major challenges for the organisation and director Chris Bain

The result of next Thursday’s Rochester by-election and the possibility of a second Ukip victory will show the impact of the party’s campaign focus on the issue of immigration. But hostility to ‘newcomers’ is nothing new in politics, and is perpetuated by a series of lies and statistics

Chicago’s new archbishop has been welcomed as a prelate who is cut from the same cloth as Pope Francis. Ahead of his installation next week, he talked to Michael Sean Winters about how he puts real people at the heart of his ministry

Six Jesuit priests were murdered in El Salvador 25 years ago. But what happened to the Catholic university where they taught? One of their friends, who went on to become its vice rector, tells the remarkable story of its survival and rebirth

Moves by Lord Falconer and his supporters in the House of Lords to allow terminally ill people to ask doctors to help them kill themselves came closer to being made law last week, if the press is to be believed. But all is not what it seems, as a prominent Catholic crossbencher explains

In all his work, Gerard (“Gerry”) W. Hughes SJ, who has died at the age of 90, tried to heal what he saw as the damaging “split” in our spirituality. “God is in every human being, in every movement of our devious minds and hearts and in every human tragedy, drawing us out of death into life.”

It’s been a busy few weeks for “trolls”. But then it always is. They’ve been hounding campaigners and rape victims; and they’ve been threatened with a clampdown by the Government. No wonder they have so little time to sit under a bridge and intimidate billy goats.

Soon there will be so few priests in Ireland to say Mass that the very existence of the Church will be in question. The bishops have no Plan B but laypeople are thinking more creatively, according to a founder of the Association of Catholic Priests

Most conscientious objectors were drafted into non-combatant roles in the army but some believed their religious principles forbade even that. Facing torture and death, one group of so-called absolutists helped enshrine through their bravery the right to conscientious objection in law

Visions of suffering sinners feature in the spiritual diaries of two nineteenth-century mystics. But, as the translator of one of them discovered, they are also eloquent on the theme of Christ’s redeeming love

The number of Jews emigrating from France to Israel has virtually doubled in the last year. Those who are leaving cite rising anti-Semitism and fears that a generation of French Muslims is being radicalised

The Catholic aid agency Cafod has helped 145,000 people rebuild their lives after a devastating typhoon hit the Philippines a year ago. But now, the agency’s director says, the focus must be on minimising the risk of extreme weather, and that means addressing climate change

This weekend marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the collapse of the Iron Curtain. Today, the optimism that event engendered seems wildly misplaced given the conflicts facing many parts of the world, not least the West’s struggle against militant Islam

Ask anyone to name an Italian wine and Chianti will almost certainly be at the top of their list. Not only is it the best- known, but Chianti has been one of the main driving forces behind the exponential growth in Italian wine quality.

No sooner had Canada joined the American-led air offensive against Islamic State in Iraq than it was targeted in two separate terrorist attacks. Now it faces questions familiar to countries like Britain, long on the front line in the battle against jihadists

It is hoped that a dozen multinational companies will sign up to a list of key principles as part of an initiative begun by Cardinal Vincent Nichols. Speakers at this week’s Blueprint for Better Business conference issued a call to action aimed at restoring public trust

There will be legions of campaigners cheering Tesco’s woes. It turns out that they were right, and shoppers would abandon the retailing giant. Every analyst studying the current climate in supermarket retailing says the same about the trend

Tablet commentator Clifford Longley argued that the time for Catholic Social Teaching has come. Church leaders, MPs and even the Governor of the Bank of England, seem to agree. But, as one observer warns, resistance to change is huge

In France, Catholics were out in force in demonstrations earlier this month against same-sex marriage and IVF for gay couples. However, church attendance has declined sharply, and it is clear that Catholicism in the country has profoundly changed

I was not especially interested in history when I entered the sixth form at St Bede’s College, Manchester, in 1960, writes Ian Kershaw. For A level I chose Latin alongside French and settled on history to make up my third subject.

A Catholic college in Kansas City is working to ensure the most marginalised can get qualifications. Michael Sean Winters talks to the new president of Donnelly College about Catholic identity and a unique approach to education

I HAD BEEN invited to Australia to give a science-and-religion talk to an association of Catholic professionals, but by the time I arrived in Brisbane my schedule had expanded into seven presentations, from school groups to university colloquia. Three of those groups asked to hear about Galileo.

This week produced the clearest evidence yet that the Synod Fathers are sharply divided between those who are supporting Pope Francis in his efforts to present a more pastoral vision of the Church and those determined first and foremost to emphasise its moral teaching

At the end of a tumultuous week, we asked an international panel of six Catholics – with a wide range of backgrounds, experience and opinions – to reflect on some of the issues and disagreements that have emerged in Rome

Last year, Pope Francis suggested that half of all marriages are invalid. His reasoning was that Catholics often fail truly to grasp what marriage is, and it is in this context that the Synod Fathers are contemplating easier access to annulments

Fourteen years ago, the UN Security Council recognised the HIV/Aids pandemic as a global health emergency. Last month, it afforded similar status to ebola in West Africa, where the Church has been using its considerable experience of dealing with HIV/Aids in countering the disease

IT IS HARD to think of a good word for something that has the potential to ruin the lives of millions of people as it multiplies and spreads around the planet. Fortunately we already have a good word: it is “virus”.

The ground rules for the Synod on the Family, as laid down by Pope Francis, allow not just debate but collegial decision-making. Francis is in listening mode – an attitude, he insists, that requires humility. At this stage, the road ahead is intriguingly unclear

Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics has been a prominent theme in the run-up to the Synod on the Family. Here, a theologian identifies how the synod might re-imagine the concept of mercy for this group, and theologians in Africa, Latin America and Asia identify their priorities

Wildlife populations have halved in the last 40 years and it is thought that human activity is to blame. A London Zoological Society study supports the argument that addressing the global loss of species is more urgent even than tackling climate change

Brazil’s presidential elections will go to a second round later this month with two candidates, the current president and a former state governor with a playboy image. While the battle will be fought along the usual party lines, the outcome is unpredictable

After the Scottish referendum, the spotlight falls on the governance of the other elements of the Union. The long-term solution must be an English Parliament, equal to those of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and separate from Westminster

The Liberal Democrats have sounded defiantly optimistic this week at a conference dominated by their record in coalition with the Conservatives. Despite their poor showing in the polls, it is still possible they will again hold the balance of power after next year’s general election

An englishman, described as an aid worker, takes aid to Syria as part of an aid convoy. He wants to ensure the aid goes to children, not murderers. With the aid of a sharp blade and social media, the murderers shock the world.

The Conservatives had an inauspicious start to their conference, losing one MP to exultant Ukip and having a minister involved in a sex scandal. The week heralded further problems for David Cameron, as our observer detects in the second of her reports

As the Synod on the Family opens tomorrow, the fifth in our series looks at some of the 253 participants from around the world, and examines the gamble – perhaps a defining moment of his pontificate – Pope Francis has taken in encouraging open dialogue and debate

I have mentioned my mother often in food writing, but this is the first time since she died that I do so. It is no longer about what she does in a kitchen, but what she did. I have found it extraordinary how, in the last few days, her influence has become stronger.

As the Islamist group Boko Haram is said to be surrounding the city of Maiduguri in the latest stage of its campaign of violence against Christians and Muslims alike, an expert on the country considers why the authorities are powerless to halt its progress

The Catholic charity Depaul UK aims to recreate a sense of family life for the thousands of homeless
young people who pass through its care. Now, as it marks its twenty-fifth anniversary, the organisation
is embarking on an ambitious expansion of its services

The Catholic Church is steadfast in its opposition to same sex unions but in the fourth of our series looking ahead to next month’s Synod on the Family, a theologian claims there is no good reason to confine marriage to heterosexual couples

The Labour Party conference began in the aftermath of the Scottish referendum, amid concerns that
Britain may join the US in bombing the Islamic State. Here, in the first of her conference season reports,
our observer finds a leader short on ideas to match the gravity of the times

There is nothing like team sport for creating a spirit of harmony and that is just what happened when a cricket XI from the Vatican played another from the Church of England on a beautiful autumn day in Canterbury

Following the canonisation of Josemaría Escrivá, the Opus Dei movement now has a second leading figure on the path to sainthood. To be beatified in Madrid today, he is Alvaro del Portillo who, as a senior member of movement in Britain explains, played key role in defining and defending the lay vocation

In the third of our series looking at issues to be discussed at the forthcoming Synod on the Family, a leading biblical scholar suggests that if bishops were to study carefully the scriptural texts on the family, marriage, children and divorce, they might be in for a shock or two

When a towering player in the tragedy afflicting Northern Ireland died last week, he was mourned more by former enemies than by one-time supporters. A seasoned observer of the conflict says this is a legacy of one of the most remarkable political U-turns of recent times

The latest threat by Islamist extremists to murder a captured British aid worker has thrown into sharp relief the ethical dilemma posed by the British and American Governments’ policy of refusing to pay ransoms for their kidnapped citizens

Tomorrow, Pope Francis makes a one-day visit to Albania, until recently among the most isolated places in Europe. The majority of the country’s citizens are Muslim but it is determined to present itself as a model of interfaith tolerance – in contrast to its troubled past

Increasing numbers of prophetic voices within the Church see evidence of God’s creative dynamism in the process of evolution. As this approach grips the Catholic imagination, it opens up vibrant new possibilities for evangelisation

Some major world cities will ban cars on Monday to highlight the damage caused by our love affair with the automobile. It is, for one avowed non-motorist, a glimpse of God’s default setting of the human pace

Syrian refugee children have lost at least three years of schooling because of the war that is tearing their country apart. Now, as Patrick Nicholson reports, a Caritas programme is helping to bring them back to the classroom

A growing number of overseas families, including Catholics, are choosing to educate their children in Britain. The popularity of British boarding schools among foreigners has revived an educational way of life which had been in decline, reports Jeremy Sutcliffe

This month, foreign-language teaching has become a compulsory part of the primary school curriculum for the first time. Isabel de Bertodano looks at how schools are adapting to the new government requirements

Miss O’Friel was my A level English teacher at St Dominic’s School on the Falls Road in Belfast, writes Mary McAleese. Civil war was breaking out on our doorstep and not only was I at school in one of the prime flashpoints for the war, I was living in Ardoyne, where tensions remain high to this day.

Bishop Bonny writes with great passion and deep concern. He speaks very directly out of his pastoral experience, arguing that there needs to be real collegial discussion of the controversial issues relating to marriage and sexuality.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is to create a new monastic community at his London residence of Lambeth Palace. Like many experiments with innovative models of religious life, it will combine aspects ancient and modern

Enzo Bianchi is the founder of an ecumenical community in Italy who was recently appointed by Pope Francis to play a formal role in the Holy See’s discussions with other Churches. Here, a former member of the Bose community looks at Bianchi’s life and work

Personal engagement is high on the agenda of the woman charged by the Government with turning around the lives of Britain’s most dysfunctional families. A cradle Catholic, she tells Joanna Moorhead of the inspiration of Cardinal Basil Hume and the importance to her of the Church’s social teaching

Next Thursday, Scots will decide whether they want their country to leave the UK. Polls have shown the two sides neck and neck, and the votes of Scotland’s Catholics could make the difference. Here,
a Scottish academic looks back at the campaign

‘Crossing the Threshold’ is a project initiated by the bishops of England and Wales that evangelises by the straightforward means of giving people easier access to the established treasures of church life

With less than two weeks to go before Scots vote to decide whether their country should leave the UK, a charity worker and academic explains how Catholic Social Teaching underpins his hopes for the emergence of a new independent Scotland

Police, prosecutors and local officials all failed in their duty to protect 1,400 girls and young women from Asian abusers. Nor are politicians free from blame, admits one of the town’s MPs during the 16 years of denial

This month, East Enders remember the London Dock Strike, which ended 125 years ago. The unlikely figure at the centre of the negotiations between the dock companies and the strikers’ leaders was a frail 81-year-old cardinal

Last weekend, the Pope sent a special blessing to the people of Castel Gandolfo to mark the festival celebrating their Madonna. But the town is suffering because Francis does not stay at his summer residence, and livelihoods are at risk

The first in a series of articles looking at the issues to be discussed at the forthcoming synod argues that what is decided will be less important than how the decisions are made. It will be the key test for Pope Francis’ vision of the Church

As both the militant Palestinian group Hamas and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emerge weakened following the truce in Gaza, a former leading British diplomat in the region assesses the prospects for a lasting peace

Shuffling into a railway arch by one of London’s busiest road intersections is a queue of hungry people. But this is no Vauxhall soup kitchen. Instead the crowd is an eclectic mix. There is a barrister, loudly discussing his latest case, a few people in bike gear, a group who have just emerged from the Tea House Theatre and a young man – my son in fact – who is on a quest to find the best burger in town.

Scots are soon to vote on independence. This week, in the first of two articles examining the implications of the ballot for the two countries, a writer steeped in the cultural and linguistic links between Scotland and England argues that they are indivisible

Iraqi Christians fled their ancestral homes in Mosul and Nineveh in fear of Islamic State. A former diplomat, who has toured their refugee camps in Kurdistan, describes here why he believes the community may yet survive

The close collaboration between Bishop Tony Palmer and Pope Francis was ended abruptly earlier this year by the bishop’s sudden death. Back in May he spoke to the Pope’s biographer about their shared goal of unity

ON SUNDAY in a rural Andalusian village, all the shops should be shut. Except there is one stall, set outside a busy local bar, breaking the normally strictly observed trading principles. A woman, probably in her mid-thirties, is selling produce from her garden: boxes of sweet-flavoured grapes, figs, eggs, jams and honey.

The jihadist group now calling itself the Islamic State, which has terrorised religious minorities in Syria and Iraq, has declared its intention to restore the caliphate. Yet the extremists’ aims are remote from those of earlier Islamic rulers

The Archbishop of St Louis celebrated a Mass for peace and justice this week after police shot dead an unarmed black teenager in the suburb of Ferguson. The death of Michael Brown and the heavy-handed police response to street protests is a reminder of America’s stark racial divide

Since 1976, Fr John Oh Wooing-jin has built Kkottongnae – the “Flower Village” – into South Korea’s largest social welfare organisation, caring for almost 4,000 homeless people, intellectually and physically disabled folk, alcoholics, elderly people and abandoned babies, writes Noel O’Neill.

Pope Francis has suggested that Benedict XVI has paved the way for future popes to stand down and that he too may one day do so. Here, a Vatican historian says Francis’ view is correct and that those who claim otherwise are not disinterested observers

The european Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft arrived at comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 6 August. Launched more than 10 years ago, it has now taken up an orbit around the Sun that parallels the comet’s path, to keep the comet in its cameras from a distance of only a few tens of kilometres.

The potential pitfalls of commercial surrogacy have emerged in the case of a Down’s syndrome baby born to a Thai woman. Yet there may be circumstances in which the Church’s ethical opposition to surrogate motherhood could be challenged

“Nun tears down Jihadi flag after it appeared at gates of Tower Hamlets estate,” wrote one newspaper after Sr Christine Frost, a Faithful Companion of Jesus, arranged for a provocative black Islamic flag to be removed from the gate of the Will Crooks estate in Poplar, east London.

Catholic aid workers, church leaders and medical personnel are on the front line in West Africa battling to control a disease that has already claimed more than 800 lives. But the ebola virus is doing more than killing people; it is spreading fear and suspicion and wiping out whole communities

On Thursday, Pope Francis begins a five-day visit to South Korea, a country with a young and growing Catholic community. He will beatify more than 100 Korean martyrs, a reminder of the persecution of Christians that is continuing in North Korea

As key players continue in Cairo to try to hammer out a more durable ceasefire to the conflict in Gaza following this week’s 72-hour truce brokered by Egypt, a former leading British diplomat in the Middle East analyses the problems both new and old faced by peacemakers

A thriving international peace movement fell apart at the start of the First World War. However, those who held fast to the principle that war is incompatible with Christianity regrouped and the association that followed proved deeply influential

At the beginning of the year I wrote happily about Sainsbury’s expanding range, but after a recent visit to a fairly big store, I was sorry to see that some of the wines that I had recommended had disappeared.

Although the Vatican’s watchdog takes a dim view of doctrinal dissent, it has approved a new document that one leading theologian, who has herself questioned aspects of the Magisterium, describes as a ‘revolutionary’ text for all baptised Catholics

One hundred years ago this week, diplomacy failed and the world descended into war. Outrage at recent events in Gaza and Ukraine may be justified, but although the risks of failure are high we must not abandon diplomatic efforts to find lasting solutions in the world’s trouble spots

In 1914 the British Government was slow to recognise the importance for Catholic soldiers of having a chaplain alongside them. Once the issue was addressed, the courage of the men and their priests was greatly admired

The French Government and the Catholic Church have condemned the anti-Semitic demonstrations which have targeted Jewish shops and synagogues in recent weeks. Here a commentator says the latest protests have had the effect of bringing together once mortal enemies

Fifty years ago next week, Pope Paul VI issued his encyclical letter Ecclesiam Suam, a groundbreaking document that changed the way the Church understood itself. No longer simply wagging a finger at the modern world, the Church began to enter into dialogue with it

A distrust of economic theory and theorists is characteristic of Pope Francis’ thinking. Instead his thoughts on social policy are rooted in the Gospel and his experience of poverty and injustice in his native Argentina

With the Co-operative Bank working hard to reinvent itself after the worst losses and scandal in its 142-year history, is it wise to abandon it as it attempts to rebuild customer trust, and what are the ethical alternatives?

We are moving house and I will say goodbye to our beehive clay oven. This is a wood-fired oven we got on a whim, thinking myself to be quite the primitive cook that would attempt all sorts of derring-do adventures outdoors.

The destruction of a Malaysian Airlines aircraft by rebels in eastern Ukraine is more than just a loss of innocent lives. The incident and the response to it illustrate the gulf between Russia and the West, and the conflicting views of Vladimir Putin

A senior Anglican priest was the only member of Lord Falconer’s commission to challenge its conclusion that the law should be changed so that terminally ill people can be helped to end their lives. Here, he argues that time is needed for a richer and more nuanced consideration of the issues

A political war of words has begun at the United Nations over the latest conflict between Israel and the Palestinians which has left hundreds dead in Gaza. But behind the rhetoric is a story of human suffering, described here by Caritas’ Jerusalem Gaza coordinator

Joining a drug-dealing gang in Los Angeles usually leads to a lifetime of crime or an early death. One priest’s initiative to break this cycle has had remarkable success but the work is far from complete

It was a beautiful theory, while it lasted. Most meteorites are well-compressed lumps of primordial dust and little beads of rock. But some are chips of lava, bits of some small asteroid that melted and sorted itself into a small iron core and a crust of frozen basaltic lava.

One of England’s most high-profile Catholic colleges, the Jesuit-run Heythrop, is considering joining forces with the new university of St Mary’s, Twickenham. It would be a move brought about by the harsh reality of today’s economic climate

Pope Francis begged forgiveness for the sins committed by the sons and daughters of the Church
when he met six survivors of clerical sex abuse last week. One of the group, who himself was molested by two priests, describes the encounter and what he urged the Pope to do

At the heart of our relationship with God is the commitment of two people to each other. When couples fall in love, God is moved and the universe quickens on its way. When they answer “I do” to the question about lifelong commitment, it is a moment of divine incarnation

Unharmed by its appearance in the fusty OED or its embrace by the old and the unhip, “lol” marches on, appended to texts, emails, tweets and Facebook comments. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has yet to end its letters with the same valediction, but it is only a matter of time.

This week Pope Francis met victims of sexual abuse. Two each from Britain, Ireland and Germany attended Mass with him and spoke of their trauma. But as the wife of another victim of abuse by a priest explains, the suffering also engulfs loved ones and family members

In last week’s edition of The Tablet, we published several responses to the working document, or instrumentum laboris, that the bishops will use at their synod in Rome in October. Here we highlight the views of the younger generation of Catholics – the people who have come of age in an increasingly secular world dominated by social media and in a Church far less confident about formation

The views of the laity on sex, marriage and the family are reported in the working document, or instrumentum laboris, prepared for the October synod of bishops. But natural law, not the sensus fidelium, is still likely to dominate the discussions

Lord Falconer’s bill promoting assisted dying is to be extensively debated at its second reading on Friday in the House of Lords. But, warns an eminent lawyer and staunch opponent of allowing the terminally ill to seek medical help to end their lives, it is a flawed draft with no safeguards against abuse

The key working document, or instrumentum laboris, that bishops will use at their synod in Rome this October was published last week. Close analysis reveals an institution for which marriage, sex and the family remain problematic, suffering a huge gap between theory and practice

Classical images of the family are under pressure. This is no surprise, and perhaps it was always so. But what this document reflects, with unusual clarity and frankness, is the widening variety of difficulties currently faced by those attempting to recreate that mysterious, almost unattainable ideal of Nazareth.

Cost-cutting measures are threatening the future of courses inspired by the mission of St Katharine Drexel to help disadvantaged students in the US acquire the basic language skills they need to get through university courses and into work

Washington DC is a city dedicated to the American political machine. But in a corner of it is what might be called the Pope’s business school, dedicated to inculcating in students the virtues of an economic system better known for its amorality and greed

NEW GUIDELINES on our sugar intake miss the mark a bit. The insistence in a draft report by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) that we halve the amount of sugar we consume sounds like good sense, but our consumption of sugar is a little more complicated than the number of lumps added to a cup of tea.

Nuns’ leaders in the United States have fallen out with the Vatican over ‘conscious evolution’. A leading exponent of the idea explains it to Christopher Lamb and rejects claims that its advocates are pantheists

Sister Ilia is director of Catholic Studies at Georgetown University who has recently completed a speaking tour of UK and Ireland. She is a proponent of “conscious evolution” an obscure theory that Cardinal Gerhard Muller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, recently accused the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) of accepting too readily.

Consumers should still trust the Fairtrade label to deliver decent returns to producers in the developing world despite recent research revealing that the poorest agricultural workers receive little benefit, argues one of the champions of the system

Romania may not boast industrial wealth but it has riches galore in a countryside unsullied by the agribusiness of its new European Union partners. But can its traditional farming methods and abundance of flora and fauna long banished from the fields of Britain continue to thrive?

Heythrop college this year celebrates its 400th anniversary. Originally founded in Belgium to educate British Jesuits, it moved to England during the French Reign of Terror, settled in London in 1970 and became part of the University of London in 1971.

The extreme Islamist violence that swept through Iraq this week has its echoes in Nigeria, Kenya and the Maghreb lands of North Africa. It marks the final collapse of Western schemes to divide up the world, and the rebirth of the notion of a Muslim caliphate straddling several continents

Over the next two years the worldwide head of the Society of Jesus, Fr Adolfo Nicolás, will be preparing to step down. As this weekend Heythrop College marks the 400th anniversary of its foundation by the English Jesuits in Louvain, a historian looks at recent trends in the society and surveys the future

The police are no longer focused just on crime but also on dealing with the most vulnerable people in society. But, says the chief constable of Greater Manchester, this is a time of austerity and they cannot do all the public wants of them. This is an opportunity for others to play their part, too

Pope Francis’ recent reconciliation with Patriarch Bartholomew threw the spotlight on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, site of an annual miracle for Orthodox Christians. But getting in to witness it is far from easy, as Louise Cowley recounts

An innovative way of spending Holy Week aims to place the custodianship of the planet at the centre of Christian practice, as eco-sceptic Anthony Weaver found out when he shared a farm in Spain with 23 children and a variety of fowl and fur

IN THE wake of the recent Budget, one phrase was used over and over again on the airwaves. Various Opposition figures told us that the Coalition was a “zombie government”, and the BBC’s commentators joined them. It was as if they’d lost control of their own mental processes.

This month, all eyes are on Brazil playing host to the beautiful game. In the first of two articles, we consider the extremes and contradictions of the country: its wealth and poverty, beauty and degradation, Catholicism and Pentecostalism

Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill had its first parliamentary reading last week. It allows doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs to terminally ill people with just six months to live who wish to end their lives. Here, a leading campaigner warns of the dangers to all those with special needs

D.H. Lawrence claimed to have rejected the Christianity of his childhood by the time he reached 16, but many of his stories and poems suggest otherwise, with one recent scholar calling him fundamentally a religious writer

Church leaders, theologians and ecumenists from the six continents met in the United States this week and demonstrated that discourse between the different denominations is thriving thanks to an approach developed in Britain

I suppose that rosé can be a refreshing drink for the summer, but I tend to see it as neither one thing or the other; there are light reds (Beaujolais, Bardolino) that you can drink chilled, or why not just go for a tasty white? However, in the interests of balance, and in case you are looking for a decent rosé, I thought that I had better try at least one.

Christian spirituality is rooted in the Incarnation and a person’s birth marks the start of a journey towards growing into the very likeness of God. While there are plenty of distractions along the way, Pentecost provides a reminder of who we really are

Having a soft spot for children is as undeniably Italian as eating a gelato while riding a Vespa. But the days of large families are long gone, and with a new record low birth rate announced last week the country is facing a long-term crisis of population decline

The genius of Gerard Manley Hopkins went unrecognised during his lifetime. Here, on the weekend of the 125th anniversary of his death, a fellow Jesuit celebrates his mastery of language and vivid imagination

People who would never eat a lobster on welfare grounds will tell you that eating these shellfish is comparable to cannibalism. Like humans, a lobster has an extended childhood, a difficult adolescence, carries its unborn young for nine months and can live to 100 years, according to People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, adding that they suffer when boiled alive.

The Conservative Party was the largest UK delegation in the European Parliament between 2009 and 2014. With Ukip now taking that mantle by number of MEPs, I am concerned that they are unlikely to be as committed – or as successful – since they refuse to take reports, ...

The Vatican has been mediating in a political row that has led to four months of violence in Venezuela. It’s not the first time the Church has played the role of peacemaker in Latin America, and the election of an Argentinian Pope has stimulated fresh interest – from Peru and Colombia to Cuba, even the Falklands (or Malvinas).

I should feel elated, having had the great privilege of attending the Mass Pope Francis celebrated in Amman on Saturday. What I feel instead is a kind of heaviness, something of the weight I imagine the Pope to have felt on his three-day pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

In what has been described as “10 Commandments for the internet age”, Archbishop Eamon Martin, incoming Archbishop of Armagh, has called upon Catholics to be “positive and joyful” online, and to use “digital smiles”. Hard advice to follow in an internet world full of bitterness, recrimination and nastiness.

The purpose of Francis’ momentous pilgrimage is to cement a historic peace with the Eastern Orthodox Church, but observers will be looking to him to use his influence to ease political and religious tensions in today’s divided Middle East

Pope Francis will receive an especially warm welcome from Palestinian Christians in the region, and in Bethlehem in particular, where their numbers have declined so dramatically since the start of this century

At 26, Michael Wear is already an old White House hand, used to treading the fine divide between religion and politics. He spoke to The Tablet about Obama, fear – and religious freedom as a hot political potato of the coming years

A Catholic college has withdrawn from sale letters by Jacqueline Kennedy to a priest after it was criticised for violating her privacy. All Hallows in Dublin says it decided not to auction the correspondence after contact with the Kennedy family

The health watchdog Nice warned last weekend of an ‘increased risk of harm’ in understaffed hospitals, a view backed by other recent research. Here, a nurses’ leader argues for investment in an expanded and well-trained workforce to meet the challenges of the future

The former Archbishop of Canterbury is now the chairman of Christian Aid. Rowan Williams talks to Madeleine Bunting about his role at the helm of the charity, how inequality of power must be fought – and why the press are good for the soul

The head teacher of a Catholic school is tasked with maintaining its ethos, and there is evidence that heads see this as the most demanding aspect of their work. Here, Adrian Porter explains a new initiative to provide them with one-to-one spiritual support

More and more aid to the poorest countries of the world is being delivered by faith-based charities. Yet the latest in a series of public discussions on the role of belief in the modern world revealed tensions and suspicions about their work, as one of the organisers reports

It’s no bed of roses, says one young priest, while another wonders when there will be time to pray. But all in a recently ordained group agreed in conversation with The Tablet that they were inspired by their calling and the life of grace-filled service it has brought them

THE RESULTS of a recent competition among wine retailers provided what to many observers was the surprising news that supermarket “own label” wines were quite good, and that stores such as Aldi and Lidl could be ranked alongside – if not above – the more established names. All of this will be no surprise to readers of this little column.

As the Australian Government admits its own failures, Mark Brolly considers the success of Catholic schools in giving indigenous peoples the same educational opportunities as the rest of the population

As the London Oratory chalks up 150 years and its neighbour a couple of miles north, the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School, celebrates its centenary, Michael Walsh looks at the world from which they grew

The questioning of Gerry Adams over the death of Jean McConville put a Jesuit-founded university in the spotlight over its collecting of oral history of the Troubles. That a prestigious college should be embroiled in this row is ironic, given its origins as an educator of the Irish Catholic poor

Recent events in Northern Ireland serve as a reminder that due legal process has too often been sacrificed to stop a return to violence. But that should not mean, says a seasoned observer, abandoning the Good Friday Agreement or jeopardising the post-conflict achievements

Pope Francis told the bishops of Sri Lanka last week that
the Church is uniquely placed to bring unity to the troubled country. Meanwhile, an international conference there highlighted how the vision of the Jesuit scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin could heal its wounds, left by decades of civil war

The grilling of Catholic Church representatives at a UN hearing on torture this week highlighted the tensions between the Holy See and its secular liberal critics. Twenty years on from the Cairo conference on population and development, a theologian makes a plea for greater understanding

Overblown, unwieldy, corrupt and damaging to British interests: these are the charges levelled at the EU as the Euro elections approach. The danger, warns the secretary of the European bishops, is that the rhetoric overshadows what a bold and successful venture the union has been

Come the start of the monsoon season next month, hundreds of fishing trawlers will come to a standstill for 45 days on the shores of the Arabian Sea in the southern Indian state of Kerala. The annual ban on mechanised fishing during the breeding season to conserve fish stocks is a legacy of the Redemptorist priest, Fr Thomas Kocherry, who died of a heart attack last week aged 73.

The fatal stabbing of a teacher in front of her pupils at a school in Leeds dominated the headlines for the past week. Corpus Christi College has drawn on its Catholic roots in its immediate response to the tragedy. How can it use them to face the future?

Years of religious tolerance have given way to bitter conflict and ethnic cleansing in the Central African Republic. The Catholic Archbishop of Bangui and the country’s Chief Imam have worked tirelessly to bring about reconciliation but extremist forces are on the march

Catholic philosopher Charles Taylor is one of the foremost thinkers on secularisation in the world today. In the first of three articles on the debate about the place of Christian belief in modern culture, he talked to Catherine Pepinster about the rejected secular experiment in his home province of Quebec and why he is so enthusiastic about contemporary society

The public figures who last month criticised David Cameron for describing Britain as a Christian country were the inheritors of a long tradition of rejection of faith. Here, the author of a new book on non-believers sifts the secularists from the humanists, and the atheists from the anti-theists

The Prime Minister’s assertion that Britain is a Christian country and believers should be more evangelical about their faith has sparked a lengthy debate about the nation. Here, one of the leading critics of Anglican establishment says that David Cameron’s intervention has changed his mind

The million pilgrims who attended the raising to the altars of John XXIII and John Paul II enjoyed euphoric celebrations of sanctity last weekend. But the ceremony was also evidence of Francis’ canniness in trying to steady the barque of St Peter while also steering his own course

Media comment, political debate and public attitudes tend to be negative about old age, but the facts and experience of many reveal a very different picture, says one specialist in the field of social care

With no guaranteed working hours and pay often below the minimum wage, care workers are often seen as the Cinderella service of the welfare state. The situation is just as bad for the elderly people who rely on them

When announcing a shortage of a narcotic food like chocolate, there is a risk of causing a run. Have you, I wonder, already got up to dash to the supermarket and buy up every bar in sight? Or are you a bit like me: fond of an after-dinner fondant but otherwise not that addicted, so not especially aggrieved that demand is currently outstripping supply?

Prime Minister David Cameron caused a stir last week with his comments about the importance of Christianity in British society. Here, the Chancellor of the Exchequer pays tribute to the role cathedrals play in communities and explains why he has set up a special fund to assist in financing their restoration

From the Good News of Easter Day, everything is born anew. What once seemed dead bursts into life as spring enfolds us. A crocus in the mud can transform our understanding of God – this evolving planet is his body and our true home

For the Jewish people it is entirely fitting that the two popes should be honoured together by being canonised at the same time, for both transformed the relationship between Catholics and their ‘older brothers’, the Jews

This weekend Jean Vanier will see two friends raised to the altars. The founder of L’Arche talks to Brendan Walsh about the peasant shrewdness of Angelo Roncalli, the confidence of Karol Wojtyla – and Pope Francis’ revolution of tenderness

The Catholic sculptor Arthur Fleischmann was unique in executing busts of four popes, among them John XXIII and John Paul II. Here, his widow explains how the work came about and recalls the couple’s encounters with two future saints

The history of popes who have been canonised is full of inconsistencies. Here a church historian looks at the very few popes who perhaps deserved to be honoured in this way and the many more who almost certainly did not

Making John XXIII and John Paul II saints on the same day brings together two very different men representing two very different strands of Catholicism. It also highlights how diversity can enrich, not damage, the Church, says a leading theologian

In his long career, the Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster met John Paul II on a number of occasions, before and after his election as pope, and once attended a Mass celebrated by Angelo Roncalli. Here, in a personal memoir, he recalls his experiences with the two men

At the very moment when the Catholic Church in America is becoming more Latino, it is also losing Hispanics. An authoritative new study concludes that greater effort is needed to prevent them drifting away from their faith

Support shown by Russia’s Orthodox Church for President Putin’s annexation of Crimea has seriously damaged its relationship with other Churches in Ukraine. Historical enmities have been revived as the region’s Christians fear a new era of persecution may be about to unfold

A reforming Pope has been at the helm for over a year but change seems too slow in coming for the liking of some. Yet renewal could unfold as gradually as the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection among his disciples

Accounts in the gospels of Jesus’ Resurrection have been pored over endlessly by scholars but the Easter story means much more in the light of lived experience, argues a leading theologian, viewing it as the practical key to understanding in three contemporary contexts

To inflict our bad temper, frustrations and unhappiness selfishly on others at work or at home is not merely unchristian and deeply uncharitable but is a denial of Jesus amounting to a refusal to believe his love, argues a leading Catholic spiritual author

What draws people to Catholicism? It’s a question that is keenly debated.
Here, a one-time atheist who is being received into the Church at the Easter Vigil recounts how the path of his life led him to the Gospel

Poets often celebrate this time of year, but some also lament its vigour, particularly if it clashes with their own dark mood. Whether their verses be about renewal, beauty or over-abundant energy, nature’s vernal regeneration is a rich source of inspiration

Debate is deeply polarised within the Catholic Church of England and Wales over the Government’s flagship policy to encourage schools to become academies. Some dioceses have embraced the idea while others fear that academies deprive other schools of state funds

Hundreds of people from Latin America are robbed, raped or killed every year in their attempt to cross the United States border in search of a better life. In the last safe house in Mexico,
a courageous priest does all he can to prepare migrants for the perilous journey north

The Apostleship of the Sea’s centre at the UK’s biggest cargo port is in ruins after it was engulfed by a giant tidal surge last winter. But the charity’s vital work of welcoming sailors from some of the world’s poorest countries continues

Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to intercede on behalf of people who have been condemned to death after being convicted of violating Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Prosecutions are escalating, with vulnerable Christians among the accused

Theologians drawn from the wide variety of rooms of the global Christian mansion met earlier this month to try to break down the barriers that have divided them for centuries. All agreed their mission has been eased by the words and deeds of Pope Francis

A leading Catholic charity boasts more than 100 supporters who, by undertaking to write to their MPs about issues concerning international development, form a highly effective lobbying group, as the chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Friends of Cafod explains

The Metropolitan Police commissioner this week attended a Vatican conference on human trafficking chaired by Cardinal Vincent Nichols. Here, the commissioner sets out his hopes for London to become a centre of good practice for the prevention of the crime and the care of victims

The exclusion of divorced and remarried Catholics from Communion has distressed many of them and been at the centre of recent debate about their pastoral care. Here, in the week commemorating the Last Supper, a leading Aquinan theologian looks at the theology of St Thomas and his understanding of God’s forgiveness which always impels people towards Communion

Like Auschwitz or the killing fields of Cambodia, today’s memorials in Rwanda to the almost unimaginable horrors of the genocide there 20 years ago are testimony to those who died – a reminder of an unintelligible evil we must confront

Charges have been stayed against a prime suspect in one of the IRA’s most notorious atrocities in England following the disclosure of a letter from the authorities promising that he would not be prosecuted for the crime. Here, an authority on human rights looks at the background

Veronica offered comfort to Jesus when she wiped his face on the path to Calvary. Her gesture is a reminder of the huge benefit that the laying on of a gentle hand can bring not only to those suffering great pain but also to those who are lonely or afraid

He is the Good Thief crucified on the right hand of the Son of Man with a cameo role in St Luke’s gospel, but the brief exchange he has with Jesus speaks volumes and reminds us yet again that it is the alienated who often come closest to Christ

More and more supermarkets seem to be producing wines that don’t claim to be more than simply red or white, often labelled as the equivalent of “house wine”. Last month, I mentioned the red and white from Asda that are marked simply Italia rosso and Italia bianco and are really very good value.

Heed the words of Pope Francis on today’s slave trade, implores a sister of Loreto. Her extensive experience of helping its victims will be on hand for senior priests and police chiefs at an international conference on human trafficking led by Cardinal Vincent Nichols in Rome next week

The Queen’s visit to Pope Francis this week forms part of a wider picture of growing friendship between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church. It also, says the dean of Westminster, highlights the Queen’s own deep Christian faith

When cardinals from around the world gathered in Rome in February for the consistory, they heard a lengthy exposition from Cardinal Walter Kasper, reproduced in part here, on the importance of the family – and of mercy when all is not well

“Conscious uncoupling” – two words you would have thought were straight of out of the Railway Operator Guide for Dummies – have now entered the marital breakdown lexicon, writes Mark Molden. They have been made famous by their use in the recent announcement that movie actress Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin are to separate.

On Tuesday the Irish President, Michael D. Higgins, begins a four-day state visit to the UK, the first since the founding of the Irish state 92 years ago. Here, a seasoned diplomatic observer reflects on how far both countries have come to reach this high point in their relations

WHEN NEWS of the merger between the world’s two largest banana producers reached my ears, I looked at my hands. A cupped hungry hand is comparable to the shorter, curled bananas from small farms on islands in the Caribbean. The long, large bananas grown on mainland South America speak of giant plantations run by great corporations.

Recent criticism by Cardinal Vincent Nichols of the Government’s welfare reform heralded to many a new low in relations between the Catholic Church and the Conservative Party. Here, a Tory MP and former Minister lays out the steps Church and politicians should take to narrow the gap of understanding

Modern Jewish scholarship of the New Testament is concerned with how Christ’s teachings are nurtured by Judaism and stem from it. According to one expert in the field, this can serve to further understanding between the two religions

An Anglican father, married into a Jewish family and bringing up his children in the faith of his wife, Michael Williams describes his pride and apprehension as he prepares for his role in his son’s bar mitzvah – the traditional coming of age ceremony when boys become men

The new Archbishop of Liverpool will be installed on the Feast of St Joseph the Worker at the city’s Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King. He told Christopher Lamb about his passion for social justice and concerns about the Government’s welfare reforms

An odd set of coincidences in May 1976 made me, a journalist newly sent by The Guardian to Belfast, a regular supper-table visitor at St Dominic’s Priory, on Haverstock Hill, north London, writes Anne McHardy.

In this Sunday’s second reading, St Paul asks the Ephesians to be “like children of light”. In his fourth reflection for Lent, Luke Bell examines how the transformative qualities of natural light reveal something of God himself

Pope Francis’ appointment of four women to the Holy See’s commission on child protection makes concrete his intention to give females positions of responsibility in the Church. Here a former ambassador to the Holy See, who is Lutheran, reflects on how ‘feminine genius’ can further Francis’ mission

THE INTERNET is constantly throwing up ­little campaigns, put together by a handful of activists using Twitter, Facebook and all the rest. The “Ban Bossy” campaign, which has spread from the maelstrom of social media into newspapers and television, is different.

In the first of two interviews this week with clergymen who have made outstanding contributions to the Church and the wider world, Jonathan Luxmoore talks to the winner of this year’s Templeton award, the Czech Fr Tomás Halík, who was active in the clandestine Church of the Communist area

The annexation of the Crimean peninsula by Russia has outraged the West, but practically it can do little. President Vladimir Putin may be tempted to claim more of the former Soviet empire – but then he would have to contend with Nato

The veteran Labour politician, who died last week, made no bones about the debt he owed to and the inspiration he drew from Christianity, recalls a former parliamentary colleague who, with his wife, became close friends with the man who braved the lion’s den of modern politics

A recent study has shown that 15-year-olds in English schools lag three years behind their peers in Shanghai in maths. But Jeremy Sutcliffe argues that attainment in this vital subject is improving and that Catholic schools are among those doing best

Last year 27,000 students in England left university without completing their courses. Isabel de Bertodano explores the reasons and what more can be done to help young people determine whether university is for them

Days before his election as Pope a year ago, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was given a book by a fellow cardinal and an old friend. The theme of the book was mercy, which has for Francis from the moment of his first Angelus address become the touchstone of his radical and reforming papacy

Without repeatedly emphasising the influence of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Francis has closely followed its teachings in what he has said and done thus far in his papacy, particularly in seven common themes identified by one leading theologian and fellow Jesuit

Pope Francis has given fresh impetus to interfaith dialogue with the other great monotheistic faiths through his warmth and clarity. In his first year, he has extended the work of Vatican II on relations with Judaism and Islam – but unresolved tensions remain

He has long been viewed as an anti-Catholic writer, but closer reading of the work of Irish dramatist Seán O’Casey, who died 50 years ago, reveals a man who reviled clericalism but warmed to the humanity of the Church and the teachings of its founder

Last week, the former US President Bill Clinton urged the people of Northern Ireland to look beyond the sporadic violence threatening their province and complete the peace process. Here, a correspondent reports on a range of quiet initiatives taking the capital, Belfast, into the future

The Sisters of Mercy were pioneers of nursing care from the Crimean War to Australia. Their crowning achievement, the Mater Hospital in Dublin, was founded in 1861 to treat the poor, but today faces ethical as well as financial challenges

For the Christian, getting married or entering the religious life leads to an understanding that life is no longer one’s own. As Luke Bell writes in his second Lent reflection, those who readily give up ownership of the self gain everything

Muslims and Jews are rigorously defending the right to kill animals without stunning them first, following a call from the organisation representing Britain’s vets for all halal and kosher meat to be clearly labelled. It’s a debate that has aroused passions on both sides

Mr Putin, the Russian President, has no doubt about what happened in Kiev. It was, he said, an “anti-constitutional coup”. But to the pro-Western demonstrators who forced the removal of Ukraine’s President Yanukovych, it wasn’t a “coup” at all: it was a “revolution”.

On Thursday Pope Francis will have completed a year as Bishop of Rome, a year in which he has begun to transform the Church. But be in no doubt, argues our Rome correspondent, of just how wide and how deep go his aims for change

The current successor to Peter is certainly a breath of fresh air, but is Pope Francis really up for a radical reform of the Catholic Church? A Christian historian admires his approach and ideals but is not yet convinced of the outcome

One of the marks of the Bergoglio pontificate is his popularity with the world’s media. When he stepped on to the balcony after his election, a star emerged. His gift, says a seasoned ITN newsreader, is his authenticity. But such early successes are nothing compared to the challenge ahead

One of the greatest crises that the Church was facing when Pope Francis was elected a year ago was its creaking form of governance. The new pontiff has made its reform one of his priorities. The key question is: how far is he willing to go in limiting his own powers?

Lent is a time to recover an undivided heart: a heart open to joy, to life, to love. It is a time for struggle against division: the division that is the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Politicians have spent years arguing about welfare – and all the time the public’s support for it has waned. Here, experts on poverty and social security argue that only abandoning a means-tested system and re-creating a contributory one will work

As the world has become more globalised, so the imperative for the Churches to come together appears to have diminished. Speakers at a recent debate about the future of worldwide Christianity considered this apparent paradox

Revelations about the involvement of two senior Labour figures in an organisation that had links with a paedophile group have elicited very different responses from the politicians concerned. One has delivered a fulsome apology;

As Ukrainians prepare for polls in May to elect a new leader following the toppling of Viktor Yanukovych by pro-European protesters, a correspondent in Kiev describes how he witnessed the brutal folly of a petty criminal turned president bring about his own downfall

Marriage Care is a charity is at the forefront of the efforts to stem the rise in family breakdown.
Its chief executive, Mark Molden, tells Christopher Lamb he combines a determination to halt the trend with an understanding of the pressures on couples

Today is the feast of David, the saint patron of Wales, and to mark it a three-day festival begins at the remote rural cathedral that bears his shrine. While the site was stripped and looted during the Reformation, it has now undergone a major revival

Scarcely a week passes when a story of a terminally ill person seeking the ‘right to die’ hits the headlines in Britain. But now Belgium is poised to allow physician-assisted suicide for children of all ages and the debate around the world has reached a new intensity

Ukip once more proved it is a force to be reckoned with by pushing the Conservatives into third place in a by-election last week. It is credited with shifting the political ground rightwards, but can it reap prizes of its own in the bigger challenges to come?

Once it was seen as the party’s inheritance from Winston Churchill. Now human rights are the Conservative Party’s bête noire and likely to feature in its next election manifesto as part of a populist stance against European interference

Last week, this writer, a Jesuit priest and psychotherapist, warned that the handling of the clerical sex abuse crisis has been marred by too much focus on theology at the expense of understanding the human psyche. Here, he examines how violators should be rooted out

Conflict between different religious groups cannot be held solely responsible for the upheavals in the Middle East. Participants in the first Westminster Faith Debate of 2014 teased out key factors behind the headlines

“What good is God?” is the title of this year’s Bannan Institute programme at Santa Clara University, the Jesuit school in California’s Silicon Valley. This month it invited me to ask: why does science need God?

A new book about confession finds that the split between church teaching and practice on sexual morality is a major cause of the decline of the sacrament. But the fall-off, says its author, may also be linked to traumatising experiences in childhood

Once an avowed atheist, the award-winning poet Michael Symmons Roberts is now a Catholic. But as he picks up another prize for his latest collection, he tells Sue Gaisford that his work is still a constant dialogue between faith and doubt

Last month’s release of Blessed John Paul’s notebooks has been hailed as a media sensation by their Polish publisher, but behind the hype is his former secretary’s drive to raise funds for grandiose schemes to promote his master’s legacy

In the face of devastating criticism by a UN committee over its record of handling clerical sex abuse, the Church has veered from angry rebuttal to gentle correction. Yet there has never been a greater need for an unambiguous Catholic champion of the rights of the child

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests – known widely by its acronym, Snap – is one of the most vocal critics of the Church’s record on child abuse, but momentarily last week one of its members was visibly moved by a priest’s words, writes Elena Curti.

It was appropriate that the Holy See, and not the Vatican City, was treated as representing the entire Catholic Church when its representatives testified before the UN committee. Its ancient status is unique, though still frequently misunderstood, as an expert on diplomacy explains

The UN committee’s critique has refocused attention on the preparation of priests for the ministry. In the first of two articles, a priest-psychotherapist argues that the handling of the abuse crisis has been inhibited by a concentration on theology rather than an understanding of the human psyche

Amid Britain’s ever-growing prison population, the role of the chaplain remains vital, providing solidarity and friendship to inmates. Here, a former MP and government Minister released from jail last week recalls the simple humanity offered to him
at a time of loneliness and loss

Anyone reading the broadsheets these days won’t have long to wait before they trip over the word “discourse”. The Guardian is full of stuff about “the climate discourse”; The Telegraph talks about “popular discourse” in Syria;

Catholic schools have long been criticised for failing to focus on poorer children. If this is the case, there is a way they can get extra government money for these pupils, as Jeremy Sutcliffe explains

Years of economic crises have left schools struggling to keep up standards with fewer teachers and crumbling infrastructure. Just how do they cope? With ever-greater dependence on support from parents, says Silvia Guzzetti in Italy

The recent heavy rainfall has turned villages in the Somerset Levels into islands, with flooded rivers threatening homes and livelihoods. At the heart of these close-knit communities, the Anglican church at Muchelney has become ...

This year’s Winter Olympics held in a Black Sea resort are putting Russia’s record on human rights and corruption centre stage. Yet wanting though that record is, the Games will be the making of a more enlightened country, argues an experienced Moscow correspondent

The capital of Massachusetts was once synonymous with American Catholicism. That all changed with the sex-abuse crisis when disillusioned Catholics stayed away from Mass, outraged by scandal and cover-up. Now, it seems, the Church has undergone a remarkable renaissance in the city

With leading public figures discussing major ethical and religious issues of the day, the Westminster Faith Debates have been a sell-out success. As their third series begins, the man behind them tells James Macintyre why, as a non-believer, he thinks they matter so much

The coins of her realm still mention the title bestowed on Henry VIII by Leo X in 1521, before he broke with Rome: Fidei Defensor, or Defender of the Faith. Indeed, Elizabeth II, throughout her reign, has always defended Christianity.

Sainsbury's seems to have finally caught up with some of the other supermarkets in its discovery of Italian white wines, and on the shelves are a nice pecorino and a fiano, the former just under £7, the latter just over £5.

Cardinal-designate Gerhard Müller has insisted that remarried divorced Catholics should not receive Communion. A fellow cardinal accused him of thinking in black and white – like, he said, all German theology professors. Here, an academic in the field examines the charge

Swiss theologian Hans Küng was for decades critical of what he perceived as the authoritarian stance of the papacy and the Roman Curia. But in his new book he finds grounds for optimism in Pope Francis.

Just what might one of the world’s great atheist scientists and philosophers have in common with the Church? Quite a lot, as became clear when Noam Chomsky addressed a Vatican foundation that aims to promote dialogue between science and religion

Ireland has reversed its decision to cut ties with the Holy See by announcing the reopening of its embassy. There is no return, though, to a relationship of servility, says an Irish foreign affairs specialist ...

This week’s statistics showing that the UK economy grew by 1.9 per cent in 2013 are the latest indicator that a return to prosperity is under way. Our commentator, however, believes that the economic improvement is occurring in spite of, rather than because of, the Government’s policy

Setting about the annual marmalade making, there is a moment to consider sugar’s credible benefit. We forget about life before the refrigerator and freezer, when the only means of preserving fruit to obtain a supply of vitamin C in winter

Their churches are increasing in number and popularity in Britain, particularly among African migrants living in urban areas. If Catholic parishioners leave the pews to join Pentecostal services, should their priest regret it? Or adapt to be more like them?

The Catholic Church’s handling of child sex abuse was put under the spotlight last week at a hearing of the United Nations committee overseeing the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Afterwards, the Vatican’s representative to the UN in Geneva spoke to The Tablet

Modern technology and social networking have fuelled a compulsive ‘fear of missing out’ among many people, especially the young. Only when we discover that our real strength comes from within not without will we be truly free

As the Castro era draws to a close in the Caribbean republic, the signs are that the Catholic Church is thriving, that old hostilities between it and the state are being repaired and that the long-desired changes to society are beginning to take place

Many churches are in a unique position to help new businesses and charities with office space, expertise and networking opportunities, all within an ethical context. The founder of one groundbreaking initiative centred on Portsmouth’s cathedral shows how it can be done

With last weekend’s list of the 19 men chosen to receive the red hat, Pope Francis made it clear that his reforms will encompass the College of Cardinals as well as the Curia. His choices, and the public letter he sent them, spell out that he wants his new men to embrace simplicity and humility

On 22 February, Pope Francis will confer the cardinal’s biretta on the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, marking the high point in an ecclesiastical journey that has seen him at the centre of the Church in England and Wales since the mid-1980s, writes Christopher Lamb.

A leading American Catholic philanthropist has claimed that Pope Francis’ remarks in his recent apostolic exhortation about unbridled capitalism is discouraging big donors from giving to the Church. Others say they breathe new life into the home of institutionalised charity

There are many reasons to be hopeful about the direction of Catholic-Orthodox dialogue but it is threatened by tensions emerging within the Orthodox Church. As the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity gets under way today, a leading ecumenist gives his assessment

A Comboni sister in the Holy Land has won praise around the world for her work with African asylum seekers. She has heard horrific stories about their treatment at the hands of kidnappers and traffickers but says that the experience has brought her closer to God

The thirteenth assembly of Latin America’s base communities last week found delegates in good heart, particularly as for the first time these mainly Catholic groups, rooted in the Second Vatican Council’s spirit of renewal, received a message of support from the Pope

On Monday, the Vatican will host a brainstorming workshop on Syria, part of the Pope’s efforts to end the civil war in that country. Here a former diplomat and a moral theologian assess the extent of his influence and the Church’s peacemaking role

At the time of the Pope’s day of prayer for Syria on 7 September, most Catholic theologians who specialise in the ethics of war and peace, including Just War proponents and not only pacifists, regarded the US bombing of Syrian targets as morally unjustified, writes Tobias L. Winright

The life of the typical parish priest can be an isolated one. Some have pointed to the tragedy of the cleric who lay dead in his car in a supermarket car park for three days after Christmas as evidence that they are becoming increasingly alone. Here we test the theory

Three great polemicists – G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc and Maurice Baring – were active during the 1914-18 war. In various roles they were both influential and controversial, and
in some cases prophetic, as a descendant of two of them recalls

With Britain in the vanguard, and the Vatican highlighting the plight of victims, progress is being made in the fight against slavery-like working conditions. But for two key British campaigners, there is only one person who can lead a truly global fight to free modern-day slaves: Pope Francis

Social work is, at best, suspicious of talk of spirituality, fearing proselytising; while, in the health service, the chaplaincy has, in some ways, absolved staff of concern for the spiritual needs of patients.

He was the room-mate of Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier and as integral as them to the founding of the Society of Jesus. But it’s taken nearly 400 years longer for him to be canonised – at the behest of a Jesuit pope

In a shanty town of Buenos Aires works a priest who, like Pope Francis, follows Christ in his devotion to those who live on the edges of society. Padre Pepe, as he is known, remains close to his former archbishop and lives his vision of a poor Church for the poor

The masterpiece on the cover of this, from the workshop of Albrecht Dürer, shows a mother absorbed in love for her child. Yet, as Rosemary Crumlin writes, around them lurk symbols of the sorrow to come

Altruism and nostalgia continue to feature in some of the advertising campaigns of Britain’s biggest retailers at this time of comfort and joy. But something obvious is missing – and that’s down to some little-known rules and Adland’s own inhibitions

For many, God is elusive if not ineffable, yet there is a way that may draw us nearer to him. The creative arts mark out human civilisation and in their nurture they provide a path to a higher spiritual plane that can connect to the mystery of his presence

On Christmas Eve last year Alan Greaves said goodbye to his wife, Maureen, and his daughter and grandchildren, and left home for his local church. He would never return. Minutes later he was savagely attacked by two young men, and he died two days later in hospital.

A mother’s devotion to her newborn, as overwhelming as it is selfless, tells us much about our relationship with God. For Sally Read, these joys and trials capture the true spirit of the Feast of the Nativity

Pope Francis’ recent apostolic exhortation is a call to the faithful to put the most deprived at the heart of the faith community. Here, the Archbishop of Westminster describes how his diocese has made a priority of those who experience a want of spiritual as well as physical nourishment

The second of two articles in the lives of Palestinians on the West Bank looks at projects that are helping women break out of their traditional domestic roles and become breadwinners and decision-makers

The visitors to the Bethlehem stable where the Christ Child lay came from the opposite ends of the social spectrum, but they were in some respects very similar to each other, says a theologian – and also similar to us

He decided to risk a fire. A few stunted bushes grew at the bottom of the ravine. Blundering into the night, for the first time in his life his hands plucked up wood without reading its grain and heft. He barely felt the thorns.

New peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians have focused on security arrangements. Yet, as the first of our series reveals, for ordinary Palestinians in the occupied territories, human rights should top the agenda

Against the backdrop of a week of events to mark the death of South Africa’s first democratically elected president, culminating tomorrow with a state funeral to be held in his home village, one of the country’s Catholic bishops looks back at his achievements and what still remains to be done

As well as the secular and religious rituals marking the death of Nelson Mandela, a third group of African symbols emphasise the continuity of life rather than the finality of death and will induct Madiba into a category of “ancestorship” revered and venerated as founders of the nation

Measures recently rolled out to cap benefits and impose sanctions against those deemed unwilling to work are squeezing incomes and causing hardship, according to the head of a Catholic charity, who says her clients have become increasingly fearful for the future

Stockings this Christmas will no doubt be bulging with the latest smartphones, to the concern of many worried about sourcing rare minerals essential for their manufacture and conditions for the workers who assemble them. But now there is an alternative

In the conflict in CAR, hundreds have been killed or abducted and thousands driven from their homes. The Church has responded by organising relief and lobbying for peace, but the hostilities are fast becoming a religious war between native Christians and foreign Muslim fighters

Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation challenges the Church to turn its face to the world, meet its challenges and refuse to be self-absorbed. It is a calling that his fellow members of the Society of Jesus will recognise, writes a leading Jesuit scholar

Despite spending 27 isolated years in prison, Nelson Mandela chose the path of forgiveness, hope and reconciliation. That decision gave South Africa a vision for its own future, writes a vicar who met him several times in Cape Town

Chemin Neuf is a French Catholic movement with an ecumenical vocation that has grown rapidly since it was founded 40 years ago. Next month, four members will move into the Lambeth headquarters of the Archbishop of Canterbury and tomorrow they start running a large Catholic parish

Pope Francis’ new apostolic exhortation is a remarkable treatise of faith and purpose. Above all, says a church commentator, it is an endorsement for the laity, placing them in their rightful place alongside the priests. Yet some may still not be satisfied

What an intriguing coincidence that Pope Francis should have caused a stir with his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, while Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, should have come out with a diametrically opposite economic philosophy in what was billed as the Margaret Thatcher Lecture

She has been described by Rowan Williams as one of the world’s most compelling novelists. Last week, Pulitzer Prize-winner Marilynne Robinson was in London to discuss what is, essentially, the central concern of her fiction – religion in contemporary America

The Pilling Report on human sexuality, which was published last week, may not radically alter the Anglican position on homosexuality. But the way it has gone about studying the subject marks a willingness to engage with an issue now more divisive than that of women bishops

Latest efforts to anchor Ukraine in Europe have failed and for the time being at least the former Soviet satellite state is still looking to its old ally, Russia, as its main influence. It has a history of being buffeted between East and West. So where does its future lie?

Many lay Catholics taking part in the Vatican’s survey will have struggled with the questions concerning natural law and sex and relationships. Here, a theologian explains Aquinas’ thinking and dismisses some myths in the process

That’s how senior judge Sir Paul Coleridge sees the best marriages and why he wants to promote the institution. And as he told Abigail Frymann the emotional and financial cost of family break-up is too high a price to pay for both the people involved and society, too

Victims of injustice and the poor have found a champion in Pope Francis, who has spoken out against corruption in all its forms. But in doing so, he has made powerful enemies and, according to a seasoned observer, would be wise to adopt sensible precautions

From joy and hope to despair; from the role of the parish to the economy: Pope Francis’ first crafted papal document was released this week, and is as wide-ranging as predicted. Here we publish extracts from his apostolic exhortation

Inspired by the Philippines’ delegate at last week’s UN climate summit, whose passionate appeal and fast following Typhoon Haiyan set the tone for the conference, faith leaders are calling on people to fast for one day a month as part of a campaign to highlight global warming

Beginning this Sunday, Advent is a period of waiting – a waiting that includes reading the signs of God’s presence. Here the Australian Jesuit Richard Leonard, in the first of his reflections for the season, recalls an unexpected encounter

Two key Vatican figures, Archbishop Gerhard Müller and Cardinal Reinhard Marx, are openly at odds on one of the most neuralgic issues facing the Church. Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, staunchly argues that Catholics who divorce

A decade on from the Church’s embracing of people with HIV and Aids, its work of meeting both physical and spiritual needs is more vital than ever as the number of people living with the virus increases, due in no small part to increased longevity made possible by medication

Chinese Communists have had an uneasy relationship with both the Catholic and Protestant faiths. But that is now changing as, against a backdrop of an ageing population and a distrust of secular charities, they welcome an expansion of the Churches’ provision of social care

Parishes report a surge in Mass attendance, inspired by Pope Francis. Commentators, even in the avowedly secular Guardian newspaper, praise his openness and humanity. But a vocal conservative minority are enraged by the new Pontiff and all he stands for

What are the things that make a person ‘spiritual’ and how can the search for spirituality become something profound and universally understood? These are questions that need answers in a society where material considerations dominate

November is the month dedicated to Holy Souls and a time to pray especially for the dead. As well as contemplating mortality, there is much to interest the visitor to some of Britain’s historic cemeteries

Despite the political tensions, tens of thousands of pilgrims will be in Bethlehem this Christmas. Louise Cowley examines the evidence for the Church of the Nativity being the exact location where Christ was born

The election of John F. Kennedy as the thirty-fifth President of the United States was a watershed for that country’s Catholics, but 50 years after his assassination, America is a very different place, with very different political battles fought over Catholicism

Once the dead have been buried and survivors’ immediate needs met, thoughts turn to restoring communities shattered by the most powerful typhoon on record that tore indiscriminately through town and country on the fragile islands of the Philippine archipelago

Prisons Week and Prisoners’ Sunday focus attention on those given custodial sentences. This year, the aim is also to highlight the plight of the children of those in custody – children whose welfare is often neglected by the courts

Last week we presented the findings about sex, marriage and the family from three new surveys of Catholic opinion. This week, we reveal that as the days of mass churchgoing and obedience to doctrine decline, new patterns of Catholic belonging are emerging

Following last week’s article by theologian Karen Kilby, we continue the discussion sparked by Pope Francis’ call for a new theology of women. Here, a philosophical theologian urges all should be heard, especially the poorest

Minimal, dramatic, melodic, some pieces appearing fully formed in the time it takes to perform them. The Tablet’s music critic offers an appreciation of the work of John Tavener, Britain’s most popular classical composer, who died this week

The Pope’s unerring ability to keep the Church on its toes was evident in his announcement last week of a consistory next February – leaving months for potential candidates for appointments as cardinals not only to be speculated about, but prove their worthiness.

William Wilberforce’s words ring as true today as they did two centuries ago, with slavery on the rise around the globe. Here two campaigners working in Parliament to end the trade write of their own efforts and of the work being done in the Vatican at the behest of Pope Francis

Catholic bishops in America have often been confrontational in their encounters with the rest of society, especially government. With mutterings of discontent from some about the new Pope, will their first gathering since Francis’ election see a mellowing in their approach?

The Catholic Church is beginning a process to find out what Catholics think about matters surrounding the family – issues like divorce, cohabitation, same-sex relationships, ­contraception and the raising of children.

The Church’s worldwide consultation in advance of the synod to discuss the pastoral challenges of the family may be wide-ranging, but it is not scientific. Here, we exclusively reveal the surprising results of just such a properly controlled analysis

The Church has moved on from the days when it viewed women as innately inferior to men yet they still cannot be ordained, let alone achieve high office, in it. So what might a new theology of women look like, given Pope Francis has called for one?

The battles within the German hierarchy over Communion for remarried divorcees and episcopal expenses do not simply express local tensions, but are critical issues for the whole Church. How Francis addresses them could define his papacy

The countdown has begun to the orderly exit of British troops from the Middle Eastern country after 445 British lives lost and millions spent during 12 years of international efforts to stabilise the region and to counter terrorism. But questions remain about whether the venture was justified

When Mgr Leo Cushley was chosen as the new Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, he was pictured with a street atlas of Scotland’s capital city. Four weeks into his new job, he is finding his way after a tumultuous year, as he explained to The Tablet’s editor, Catherine Pepinster

The past six years have seen financiers and corporate leaders, especially in London, vilified over their lack of concern for workers, customers and clients. Can Christianity help shape a more acceptable form of capitalism?

The coexistence inside Vatican City of Pope Francis, the current Bishop of Rome, and Benedict XVI, his retired predecessor, may not be as peaceful as depicted these past few months, writes Robert Mickens.

After her death in 1957, the Carmelite Blessed Maria Crocifissa Curcio was all but forgotten beyond the community she founded outside Rome, until one poet, through a shocking discovery at her daughter’s school, learned of the nun’s extraordinary writing...

Albert Camus was one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers, remembered for his existentialism and a seeming rejection of God. Yet, a century on from his birth, study of his work shows a man fascinated by Christ and impressed by sacrifice and solidarity

Africa is the continent where Catholicism is growing fastest. Here, in the first of two interviews with leaders of the Church there, the Provincial of the Jesuits in East Africa, Fr Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator SJ, tells Christopher Lamb about his background in traditional religion and how he sees the future role of the continent in the worldwide Church

After many years as an anti-apartheid campaigner, Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg has in recent years been battling against HIV and Aids. In London for the church mission charity Missio, he told Abigail Frymann about his work and why he is heartened by the election of Pope Francis

Next Monday is the 110th anniversary of the birth of Evelyn Waugh. In tribute, a fellow novelist takes the role of Devil's advocate to weigh before an imaginary Congregation for the Causes of Saints the case for the canonisation of Waugh's tragic hero Sebastian Flyte

Every other year Catholic sixth-formers travel from Greater Manchester to work with young pupils at their sister Loreto schools in Kolkata. Religious education teacher Gráinne O’Hagan describes what is invariably a life-changing experience

More and more religious orders now offer online courses sharing their spirituality and heritage. Johan Bergström-Allen browses the mendicant, monastic and other resources available at the click of a mouse

The Mediterranean is fast becoming a cemetery, the prime minister of Malta said last weekend after another boat laden with migrants capsized. Here an Italian MP and member of the Sant’Egidio community demands urgent reform to the European policy on migrants and refugees

Archbishop Bernard Longley, a leading figure in inter-church dialogue, has said that a further relaxation of the rules regarding intercommunion, including eucharistic sharing, would be a sign of deeper shared understanding of the sacrament. Here, two ecumenists give their views

One of the problems with talk about new developments in the life of the Church is that many people remain unaware of the significant changes and permissions that are already in place, writes Kevin McDonald.

Creating a law concerning abortion is a vexed issue in Ireland, where the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act was passed last summer, while the Catholic Church objected. Future battles over what the law really says will determine what it means

She is the City’s enforcer, the woman who takes on the rogues. Tracey McDermott, head of the new Financial Conduct Authority, talks to Chris Blackhurst about the cleaned-up City of London and the values instilled by her Catholic childhood

IT WAS the late Max Bygraves who used to say, “I wanna tell you a story”. These days everyone has a story to tell – individuals, institutions, businesses, political parties – but the word they often prefer is “narrative”.

There are only six novices among the communities of the English Benedictine Congregation. With numbers rapidly shrinking, the monks are focusing on vocations and going back to basics to identify their unique contribution to the Church

Every week, a case emerges of a child who has been beaten or starved to death by a parent. The authorities routinely pledge that lessons will be learned from these all-too-frequent tragedies. So why do they appear endlessly to repeat themselves?

Against the odds, Mary Ward founded two religious orders in an age when being a Catholic in England was highly dangerous and being a woman leader was anathema to the Church. Now her original convent has a plan to tell her story more effectively

It is difficult caring for people in the last stages of dementia when all sense of the person’s identity appears lost. But God’s grace is present even in this situation if only it is sought, and being in the presence of sufferers can reveal a window to a more profound truth

An inquiry ordered by the Bishop of Northampton to determine whether a cause should be launched for the canonisation of G.K. Chesterton is already provoking strong passions. A fellow journalist and admirer argues ardently against any such cause

The Pope has urged the Catholic Church to be a field hospital, healing people’s wounds. His remark could easily be applied to the work being done in parts of the developing world – work which is often not acknowledged because of its controversial nature.

A month, if not a week, is a long time in politics. It may seem quixotic to display any optimism in the wake of the atrocious murders in Nairobi and the under-reported but no less shocking bomb attack on Christians in Peshawar, but we were in a far worse place only a few weeks ago.

As David Cameron this week wound up the last of the season’s party conferences, a veteran political observer reflects on the death of the set-piece ‘big speech’, driven from the platform by the short sharp snap of the focus-grouped sound bite

Pope Francis’ appetite for engagement is now well known. In his latest interview – with Eugenio Scalfari, the Italian atheist commentator and founder of La Repubblica – he makes plain his vision of the Church

Recent warm days bring to an end one of the best years for butterflies in Britain for some time. But though an inspiration to poets and philosophers, their abundance belies a deeper uncertainty about our changing climate